Construction on £4m Filey flood scheme begins

The work involves creating earth embankments and water storage areas outside the town

Construction work has started on a flood defence scheme for hundreds of properties 13 years after a major deluge in a town.

Filey, on the North Yorkshire coast, was hit by serious surface water flooding in 2007 when torrential rainfall flooded more than 200 homes.

The Flood Alleviation Scheme will offer protection to more than 700 properties and the town's access roads.

The £4.37m scheme is due to be completed in 2021.

About 80mm of rain fell in under two hours in Filey on 18 July 2007. It led to more than 200 homes being flooded and water blocking both access roads into the town.

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Mayor Jacqui Houlden-Banks told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "It was absolutely horrific, most of the community was affected.

"We had inflatable dinghies out to get the elderly people to places of safety, we couldn't get to the infant and the junior schools to get children so people were going with boats and with waders and the lifeboat helped out to get to them."

Funding for the scheme has been made up from the Environment Agency (£2.269m), Regional Flood and Coast Defence Committee Local Levy (£1.712m), Scarborough Borough Council (£369,000) and Filey Town Council (£20,000).

Preparatory work for the scheme began in July, with the major construction work beginning this week

The scheme involves the construction of a series of earth embankments, ditches and temporary flood storage areas at different locations around the edge of the town.

Together with new drainage channels and culverts, these are designed to catch the flows of water from surrounding land during extreme rainfall before they reach the town.

The contained water will be released slowly into the drainage system once a storm has finished.

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